As I commented on the Core77 entry where I saw the news, this really isn’t a surprise. The Google Earth forum was full of comments when I visited it some weeks back and 99.99% of what I read were questions about SketchUp. The question in my mind is: how will Google integrate SketchUp into it’s virtual planet and will improvements to GE be forthcoming (especially in the area of textures)?

Anyway, you can read the official announcement on the SketchUp site for yourself (Link).

Videogame news site IGN brings word of NaturalMotion’s new videogame physics-based animation system called “euphoria”. From the IGN news blurb (Link):

Using euphoria, developers can escape the need to pre-program character reactions. Instead, the engine will take into account multiple variables like physics and degree of force to determine how an in-game model should react, making for distinctive results every time.
…
Based on NaturalMotion’s Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS) technology, euphoria allows for A.I. to act as though they possess a central nervous system.

IGN may be wondering which videogame titles will use NaturalMotion’s technology but I’m wondering a) what PLM systems might license it or b) which proprietary PLM systems will see an opportunity for them in the videogame arena.

via Blue’s News

Hey, if the mainstream media is going to keep posting articles about “gold pharming”, I may as well point people to them. Besides, sometimes there’s a bit of information in an article that’s unique. Sometimes.

The latest MSM to report on this is Red Herring (I didn’t even know that magazine still existed). If you’re interested in either current videogame socio-economic issues or, like me, are interested in the future of work, you might want to check out the Red Herring article, “Digging for Videogame Gold” (Link).

And in case you missed my earlier post (reLink) regarding a discussion over on Terra Nova, you might enjoy both the comments and the video.

via Blue’s News

Wired has news of a very cool development in the materials world: artificial nacre. From the Wired article (Link):

A team of researchers in the Materials Science Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has managed to imitate the complex structures found in ice and mollusk shells, and the ultra-strong material could lead to everything from stronger artificial bone to airplane parts.

I keep surfing over to the RepRap blog and seeing devices that look more and more like regular old injection molding machines and can’t help but wonder if there isn’t something off in this approach. This kind of news just reinforces that feeling that there might be a better process.

Cool stuff.

I just happened to swing by Bruce Nussbaum’s blog before chaining myself once again to a particularly gnarly 3D model on which I’m working. While there I happened to notice that an older entry had a comment and went to check it out. As it turned out, it wasn’t that comment which was interesting, but the previous one that I’d missed.

For the Industrial Designers out there, this comment (Link) might be of interest:

When Galli took over Rubbermaid, someone called us to discuss finding them a director of design. If you recall, BW did a cover story on him at the time. The salary was pitiful and the job was not positioned to be effective. I called someone who used to work in design when Galli was at Black & Decker consumer products, then in CT, who said that Galli claimed to be a supporter of design, but he wasn’t. For these and other reasons, we decided not to get involved. As far as I know, they never went ahead with the search.

I remember all the talk and can’t help but wonder if the design community isn’t so desperate for recognition that it forgets how it’s just another card in the deck; played as necessary by people who only care about winning their hand.

This reminds me. As I’ve recently mentioned, I joined the LinkedIn system. When I first signed in, I went looking at some of my 2nd-removed contacts (those people whose profiles I could see). I came across an individual who played the same card as Galli.

Here was someone trumpeting how great his record was, particularly on product development/design. Even going so far as to cite a program on which I’d worked.

Lies.

The truth is, he was the biggest obstacle in that program; at one point deciding he knew best what the design should be, redirecting the effort within a week of the deadline, and then sitting quietly as the Senior VP blew a gasket at the whole team when he saw the result of this person’s involvement.

Of course at that point I went back to what I’d been doing before senior management got involved in things about which they knew nothing. I delivered a product a few days later, meeting all the impossible deadlines and, as a result, being given some kind of minor reward for a product that still sells and earns the company millions of dollars. At internal ceremonies back then this person was the first to bask in the glory of the success and those of us involved in the design had some choice words to describe this individual. And now he’s out there making false claims on this product’s continued success.

Played.